


Buffer

by campnowhere



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fake Dating, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Supercat Week, Tumblr: supercatweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 19:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7654135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/campnowhere/pseuds/campnowhere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cat Grant and Lois Lane are up for the same award. Clark is expecting Kara to be there to help him buffer the situation...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buffer

Kara points the showerhead towards the crumpled suit in the bottom of her shower and lets it run. She wrinkles her nose in disgust and walks away for a moment, trying to squeeze the excess water out of her hair with her fluffy towel. “Seriously, how much toxic slime can one alien produce?” she murmurs to herself. She clicks on the tv in her bedroom to see if the news got any good video of her getting doused in ick, but a buzzing, whining sound distracts her. She realizes it’s her phone a second later, right where she left it on the coffee table, light tendrils of smoke drifting up from where the layer of slime is eating right through the wood. The screen is distorted and the ringtone sounds more like a high pitch dying cat crossed with a gargle.

Kara slaps at it a few times before using the towel in her hand to wipe the screen free of goop before swiping to answer, “Hello?”

“Kara? Is that you? You sound weird,” she hears her cousin say faintly, an electronic tinge to his voice.

“Hey, Kal. It’s me, my phone is just kind of, melting right now, so you might want to make this quick,” Kara blurts out, noticing the plastic casing pooling underneath the screen. “What’s up?”

“Oh. That sucks. You’re coming to the awards thing tonight, right?”

“Uh, no, I’ve been kinda busy this afternoon, cuz,” Kara says incredulously. “I just got slimed with toxic goo that’s currently eating through my coffee table. Not really in the mood to schmooze.”

“Oh. I thought you’d be there with Cat. This is not gonna go well…” he murmurs so lowly, Kara had a hard time hearing.

“What do you mean I’d be there with Cat?”

“C’mon, Kara, don’t make me say it,” the man of steel literally whines.

Kara scrunches her face comically. “Well I’m gonna need you to say it, because I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Look, Lois is on the warpath and if Cat Grant wins this award one more time, I’m afraid she’s going to go ballistic. I was really hoping I could depend on you to help me buffer this situation.”

She goes silent again, remembers Cat waving her in her office yesterday evening when Kara was about to leave. The older woman had an invitation in her hand and had started to explain to Kara about her nomination. They had chatted for a while and Cat had just asked if she had any plans when Kara got called away abruptly for a DEO emergency. She gave Cat her apologies, which were waved off, of course with an indulgent smile and a roll of her eyes, but Kara had a feeling Cat wasn’t finished.

“She was going to ask me to go with her…” she mumbles, “to make Lois jealous.” Kara finishes her thoughts with a light laugh.

“Kal? You still there?” 

“Yeah, Kara. So are you goi….” and with a brief flash of the screen, her phone dies a glorious death.

“Guess I’ll catch up to him later,” she muses, already headed towards the impulse purchase in the back of her closet. She didn’t think she would get to use the evening gown this soon, but she wouldn’t show up to a fake date with Cat Grant in anything less than the very best she had. With a quick flick of her wrist, she pulls the zipper down and the startling red dress comes into view. She holds in front of her in the mirror. “This will have to do.”

\------------------------------------------------

Kara lands with a thump on the roof of the hotel where the awards ceremony is being held. It’s a huge risk to fly without the suit, but the logistics were too hard to work out for evening wear. She makes her way in the building and ducks inside the first restroom she can find to check her hair, pulled up into a French twist, and does a last minute check on the dress. It’s sparkling red, backless, with a split up the thigh that makes her blush, but Alex had threatened to buy it for her herself when she had tried it on during a carefree shopping trip a few weekends ago. Satisfied that at least her appearance won’t completely embarrass her, she makes her way down the hall and finds the elevator bank.

\--------------------------------------------------- 

“Awww, look at the little lonely kitty Cat sulking in the corner. Is this the adoption center? Can I make a donation?” Lois Lane snarks out, quickly bringing her obnoxious red drink to her lips.

“Clark, could you reign in your wife? She’s obviously had too much to drink already,” Cat bites out between clenched teeth. “Not surprisingly of course, it must be hard to show up to this thing year after year to utter disappointment.”

Lois starts talking before Clark can even begin a thought, “Not this year, Grant. That award will be going back to Metropolis with me.”

Cat merely rolls her eyes and turns back towards the beautiful view of National City she was enjoying before her nemesis in heels showed up. She hears Clark quietly chastising Lois and smirks. Even Superman can’t reign in the loudmouth of the Daily Planet. She startles a bit when she feels a warm hand sliding around her waist, but then the soft, flowery scent of her former assistant’s hits her nose and she relaxes.

“I’m so sorry I’m late, Cat,” Kara says softly, placing a soft kiss upon Cat’s cheek. Kara hums as she trails her nose slowly down the slope of Cat’s cheek, ending up tucked in the space between her neck and shoulder. Kara can hear Cat’s heartbeat stutter and beat strongly in response and she smiles in her comfy spot. When she hears the expected gasp from her cousin’s wife, she lifts her head and feigns surprise. 

“Lois!” Kara reaches quickly to embrace the gawking woman in her arms, squeezing lightly before stepping over to Clark. They all see her take a quick glance around before gifting her cousin with a swift punch to the shoulder that sends him crumpling back into the concrete pillar behind him, dust fluttering down when he straightens with a scowl. “Hello to you too, dork,” Kara smirks.

“Kara!” Lois exclaims. “What are you doing with…her?” 

Kara sees her cousin lean in to give a quick ‘I told you so’ in Lois’s ear before she responds. “I’m Cat’s date. Didn’t Clark tell you?” she asks innocently. She feels Cat squeeze her hand tightly in response and it’s worth everything that she will go through tonight.

Lois is about to open her mouth again when the lights flicker in the ballroom. “Oh well, Lane,” Cat says delightfully, “It’s time to go accept my award. Maybe we’ll catch up with you two kids later, hmmm?” After which, Cat turns to Kara with a bright smile and the two make their way to the CatCo table in the middle of the room.

\-------------------------------------------------

It’s during the so-called intermission when Cat drags Kara out onto the secluded balcony for a moment’s peace. Kara has been the perfect date all night long, engaging in conversation with all of their table mates, but without ever lifting her hand from Cat’s or from behind Cat’s shoulder. She even leans over to whisper overheard gossip into Cat’s ear a few times, relishing in the stuttering gasps she hears from the older woman when her lips brushed her ear. Cat has endured enough and is ready to set the record straight.

“Cat, what is it? I was just about to arm wrestle Anderson Cooper,” Kara all but whined, pouting at being drug away from her new friends.

“What is this, Kara?” Cat demanded, arms crossed and toe tapping on the concrete.

“Well, I thought that this was what you wanted? Look, I know we were interrupted yesterday, but I’m certain that this is what you were about to ask me. For me to accompany you, right?” Kara finished a bit uncertainly, after seeing the stern look on her boss-but-not-quite-boss’s face.

Cat stays silent for a bit and Kara gets even more nervous. “So, you don’t mind being associated with me in this way?” Cat asks softly.

Kara’s eyes almost bulge out of her head. “Cat! Of course not! Anyone would be lucky to be seen in your company. I’ll be your fake date anytime,” Kara says lightly. “Any capacity, really. I just like spending time with you,” she finishes in almost a whisper, drawing closer to Cat with every word.

“I wasn’t asking you to be my fake date,” Cat says crisply, hazel eyes sparkling in the dim lighting on the balcony.

Kara immediately brings her hands to the mouth in panic. “Oh my god, Cat. I am so sorry. Oh god, I’ve probably embarrassed you beyond belief. I…”

“Kara!” Cat blurts, realizing she has to get the younger woman’s attention quickly. When Kara finally drops her hands and meets her gaze, she begins again, “I wasn’t asking you to be my fake date. I was asking you to be my date. My real date.”

“Oh,” Kara says softly, her eyes dropping to Cat’s lips briefly. 

Cat sighs, realizing she has shown her hand to the young superhero, ready to go back inside and find the closest bourbon bottle possible. 

Kara finally drags her eyes back up to meet hers before saying, “That is so much better than being the fake date.”

Cat is startled for the second time that night before she feels soft lips upon hers and she gasps lightly. That glorious feeling doesn’t stop and she lifts her hands to Kara’s shoulders, pulling her closer. They are both lost in the sensations for a few minutes before they part, breathing heavily. 

The flashing lights from within catch their attention and Kara reaches for Cat’s hand. “Come on, I think they have an award for the Queen of all Media. I don’t want her to be missing in action,” she says with a smile.

\---------------------------------------------------

Her award waits patiently at the front desk with her coat and Cat lingers on the balcony again while Kara gets them a couple of drinks. The young woman has been an instant hit with everyone she has come into contact with tonight, so she knows she may be awhile. She smiles widely as she looks out upon her beloved city. Cat is perfectly content to wait.

“So, Kitty Cat, tell me how you did it this year…write personal checks to everyone on the board?” Lois slurs stumbling just a tiny bit upon her heels. “How much did you have to pay Kara? Hmmm?”

Cat turns, spreads her arms out against the balcony railing and settles with a smirk. “Nobody writes checks anymore, Lane. You really are stuck in the 90’s.”

\---------------------------------------------------

Across the ballroom, Kara turns with two drinks in her hands to face Clark. “Kal,” she hisses, “you’re supposed to be keeping an eye on your wife.”

“Uh…she sent me to get drinks.”

“You alien idiot, she sent you to get drinks to distract you from attacking my date!” Kara blurts, quickly making her way across the ballroom, Clark in tow.

\---------------------------------------------------

“At least I had the superhero first, Grant!” Kara and Clark overhear as they both slide to a stop at the edge of the balcony.

Cat turns her head, sees Kara taking deep breaths in her sinfully tight red sequined dress, the slit up the thigh revealing a long expanse of smooth tan skin. Her bumbling cousin is behind her, wiping hastily at his white tuxedo shirt at the spilled drinks in his hands. Kara’s smile is blinding when she meets her eyes and she feels the world’s weight lift from her shoulders.

“I had to wait a while for my superhero, Lois, but I think we can all agree, it’s been well worth the wait.”

**Author's Note:**

> txnmcky on tumblr.


End file.
